Reading Music

One of the biggest challenges faced by band students is reading a new language called music notation. This page includes resources to help your student become a better note and rhythm reader.

Lessons:

This link leads to a lesson on the staff, treble and bass clefs, and ledger lines.

This lesson discusses note length.

Measures and Time Signature allow us to group the notes.

Rests have length too.

Games:

MusicTechTeacher has many games to help with just about any area of music, and has many games for note and rhythm reading.

MusicTheory.net provides a note trainer that drills you on note names and allows you to set your range to match the notes you most often see.

Staff Wars is a game that we often play in class to practice note reading. You can play it at home on your tablet or smartphone by following this link. Add an extra level of difficulty by playing Staff Wars Live, where instead of tapping the note on the screen you play it on your instrument.